Be Careful what You Wish For
by Elendil Star-Lover
Summary: Jeran only wanted to be Darigan for one night...


Be Careful what You Wish For

By

Elendil Star-Lover

A/N: When I wrote this story, Lady Darigan was a fourth dark faerie. Nothing has changed, she's still Jhudora's granddaughter, but by faerie magic, I mean faerie blood. She's always going to be part dark faerie and anyone who neomails me about her is going to get the same story: Jhudora mated with a Korbat to make Lord Darigan, who married and Eyire to make Selena. TNT needs to get over it.

&&&

Jeran: Change is a...weird thing. Sometimes it brings joy, sometimes sorrow, but it is the one thing that is constant anywhere.

I flopped down on my bed with a heavy sigh, shutting my eyes and just drifting in darkness. I was still sore from my battle-earned wounds and the motion hurts, but I was tired and want to sleep for just a few minutes. I hadn't been able to sleep since the War ended.

Call it Soldier's Heart or what Lisha calls Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but I haven't been able to get used to peacetime. I am a soldier through and through, so when the battle is over and peace is formed, what is left for me? I have nothing and no one to defend.

I guess that's kind of pathetic of me. I spent my life trying to keep peace between Meridell and Darigan and as soon as peace comes, all I can hope is that Darigan will go insane again and try to destroy Meridell or Selena will finally inform King Skarl what she thinks of him and King Skarl will declare war.

Trust me, "His Royal Fatheadness" is _not_ the worst Selena Tiamat Darigan, Daughter of Darigan, has said of my adopted father.

To be honest, any army Selena had her way with, I would _not_ like to battle. But I was _bored_! At least when the Darigan army was pillaging the countryside, I had something to do. These days I'm pinned up in the castle walls, watching political meetings across the table from Selena, who's there to make sure Lord Darigan knows what's happened in recent months while trying to pretend that she's a good little girl so that King Skarl will ignore her and she won't feel the need to either slash his throat or blow him up in a ball of dark magic and so Lord Darigan can pretend he's the Lord of the Citadel.

That's Selena for you. She's a devious little rat, born and raised in that Citadel and forged from steel during wartime. She just barely remembers a time when the Citadel was a happy place, but that was along time ago and she's Darigan through and through. Vile temper and itchy sword hand.

Of course, she's also got a drop of Dark Faerie magic in her, so she's powerful black magic. Rumor has it that Jhudora was the one that gave Selena and her father the Faerie magic and that Selena is Jhudora a hundredfold.

That's comforting, since she's been the brains behind the Citadel for some time. She's seventeen, like me, and before Kass quite literally threw her out, she ruled the Citadel and her people loved her. Now Darigan has assumed he has the throne again, but it's Selena that knows her people's thoughts now, since she is the one that tries to understand them.

From the sound of it, years ago, Lord Darigan was a good guy. When Meridell stole his Orb, he did everything in his power short of warfare to keep his Citadel afloat, so to speak. When that failed, he sold his soul to The Three to protect his daughter, and then he was defeated and supposedly died. Selena says he doesn't remember why he isn't buried and seems to be as healthy as any other Darigan, but he does remember a little Usul girl, and that's about it.

Since Lord Darigan came back, he has tried to rule the Citadel, but Selena is used to ruling and it's hard for her to share or give power, especially to someone that almost destroyed them all. It doesn't help that Selena was watching when Lord Darigan combusted.

Needless to say, Selena is more than a little insane.

Lord Darigan tries to do too much. He tries to be the Lord of the Citadel while respecting that it is Selena who knows more than he does about recent events and tries to step back enough to let her do things her way.

Not that she gives him a choice. If Selena was any other individual, I would swear she acts before she thinks, but lurking in the depths of her mind is such a devious, intelligent creature that it would be a miracle if she ever managed to have a non-thought.

She's always thinking. You can see it in her pupilless, glowing green eyes. If you just glance at those Dark Faerie eyes, you can see the wheels turning and you know that you are inches away from death, as she stares at you, her belly empty and her power strong.

I couldn't sleep because I kept waiting to hear the screams of peasants as Lord Darigan tried to invade again. I knew Selena wouldn't do that because she valued her kind's lives too much, but not only was Lord Darigan Meridell's first invader, but no one knew what he had been up to while Kass was tyranting.

For all anyone knew, he had been biding his time. As Galgarrath and King Skarl had so often reminded the young Darigan Eyrie, she had only a little Dark Faerie. While Lord Darigan seemed to be more Korbat, merely a carrier for Faerie magic, it was possible that he had powers he had never shared with anyone.

My eyes drifted closed and for awhile I think I was asleep. Vaguely, I sensed my sister's presence in the room and opened my eyes, lifting my sore head up and seeing Lisha standing under the doorframe.

"You need to get ready, you know. Lord and Lady Darigan are supposed to have dinner with us and King Skarl's about ready to explode."

I snorted. I could see my father, red-faced, teeth gritting, and about to snap the arm rests of his chair. He would be sitting in the throne room, barking out orders to the cooks and maids about the dinner with utmost disdain for the guests.

I sat up and looked at Lisha, "Should I don full armor, or my silk tunic?"

The yellow Aisha shrugged, "Lady Selena's going to be in armor, and carrying a sword, you know that."

I smiled at the image of the war maiden, a violet sword, slightly smaller and more feminine than the one Kass used, a cape flowing behind her and dripping in gleaming silver trinkets and amethyst stones.

"Full armor, then?"

Lisha smiled, "I think Lady Selena will be expecting it. It also might calm King Skarl down, a bit, to see his best night in full armor when the Darigan Menace comes for supper tonight."

I shook my head, "They're not evil, and never have been. Lord Kass might have been evil, but what Selena and Lord Darigan have done in the past, they did it to keep their people alive."

"What about the rouges that even now still steal from Meridell's farms? Sally Usul's farm was ransacked last night, you know."

I blinked. Sally Usul? Her family never did anything to anyone! They kept peacefully to themselves, keeping their noses clean. They were a poor family, having barely enough to feed themselves.

"Sally? Why wasn't I informed?" I demanded, sitting up a little higher.

"Because Lady Selena and Lord Darigan got to them, first," my sister answered. "They won't be stealing from anyone anymore."

I sighed with relief. Especially the Usul family didn't need Darigans attacking them in the middle of the night, as Darigans were prone to doing.

"Things like that just shouldn't go on, even if they are starving," Lisha hissed. "You'd think Lady Selena would have set a better example then that!"

I kept my face neutral, not really sure how to explain it to Lisha.

"The Darigans don't mean to be monsters, Lisha. They can't help the way they're made!"

Lisha shrugged, "Sometimes I give Selena the benefit of the doubt, sometimes I half expect to wake up one morning to find her at the controls of one of Kass' war machines."

I laughed, "Selena's one to do what she thinks is best for her people, but I don't think she likes wars too much. They don't have enough money to fund another."

I snickered again at the image of Selena standing on top of a war machine, cackling her demented little head off as it drove toward Meridell Castle.

Then I quit laughing.

That image was way too clear.

I sighed and sat up as Lisha left the room and got busy bathing and getting dressed. Skarl wanted the entire castle scrubbed with sand and shined from tower to dungeon, and that meant the inhabitants, too.

When I was finally clean, brushed, and had clipped my claws free of unsightly hangnails, I donned a blue tunic that was only a shade or two different from my fur, with a dark brown leather double-wrap belt to support my sun sword, of which earned me my affectionate nickname from 'Lena, "Sir Jeran Borodere of the Sun".

I stared at myself in the mirror, all shining fur and glittering stones on the more ceremonial sheathe of my sword.

This wasn't who I wanted to be, not really.

I can think of better things to do with my life than spend it on a battlefield, but being a prince, filling out paperwork and mediating between arguing nobles...that just doesn't appeal to me.

At least Selena has a little excitement, but I don't think I'd like to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how to keep my subjects from starving and how to get them to quit raiding other farms.

I'm not sure who I want to be, but I don't think I can find it here, in Meridell Castle.

Unfortunately, I don't have much of a choice. King Skarl raised me. He wasn't good at it, perhaps he didn't even want me to begin with, but before Lisha, he was all the family I had.

Passing one last look at the mirror, I sighed again and left the room.

&&&

There are stairs that lead past the bedchambers and toward the dining hall, great, sweeping stairs. It is called by an oh so original name: The Grand Staircase.

There was a spirit waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, a silent specter. She was dressed from head to toe in black leather that clung tightly to her slender form, with bell sleeves that draped almost to the floor with her arms by her side. She wore a double-wrap belt like mine, but studded in recycled barbed wire, it running across her hips and waist gracefully and holding up the answer to my sun sword with the silver and purple moon sword. A black silk cape, probably recycled from one of her bedsheets, covered her shoulders, but her wings straddled it, black and varying shades of purple and well over thirty feet in span.

What makes this spirit so enchanting isn't her slender figure, the knee-high silver-buckled boots, the belt or the sword, the thirty-foot wingspan, or graceful cape, it is her face.

Or lack thereof.

She hides her beak behind a black veil, showing just her glowing green eyes. Just those eyes, those fantastic, gleaming eyes that almost show past, present, and future.

Emeralds without any clearly defined pupils, lit by magic. The only outward hint of her specialness, her Faerie magic.

I stepped down the stairs, smiling at that ghost, staring solemnly back. Her veil has a neat effect, you really can't tell what's on her mind. It can be kind of eerie, no pun intended.

I stepped off the stairs beside her, facing this beautiful creature, this Dark Lady 'Lena, child of the Citadel. Her eyes met mine and it was like electricity running through my body, how beautiful a Darigan could be.

"Hello, Princess Selena," I said, nodding to her.

She nodded back. Or rather, she bowed from the head and shoulders, blinking slowly.

I shuddered.

"You should talk more, Selena, it's unnerving to have to guess what expression you're making," I grinned, offering my arm to her.

For a second she looked at it with the expression someone might give you if you handed them a brick for no reason whatsoever. Darigans, especially Selena, are not much for ceremony and I don't think Selena gets attention from males much, not that she'd accept it.

She took my arm and let me escort her to the dining hall (of course she moved so fast and so forcefully it's probably more accurate to say she escorted me), saying with a straight face, "Princely solemnity doesn't become you."

Then she herself giggled.

The two of us were seated next to each other at a long, rectangular table, King Skarl at one end and Lord Darigan at another. Lisha, Kayla, Morris, and Boris were already there and the latter two almost had laughing fits when they saw 'Lena and I enter together.

I growled softly at them to shut their traps and glanced down the table at King Skarl and the way he glowered at me and Lady Darigan.

"Where is that war orphan you took in, girl? Sane, was it?" King Skarl asked as Selena seated herself, snapping at the fingers of the Draik guard that tried to pull her chair out for her.

"Saane," she answered, pronouncing the Dark Faerie name at the end of her tongue and through the tiny holes at the top of her beak. "I left him at home with Galgarrath."

"Poor man," I replied, grinning. "Having to spend the better part of his life chasing you down and then you leave him at home with a psychotic baby Eyrie!"

Selena laughed and folded her hands, as usual mostly hidden behind velvety black cut-off gloves, a few scars from infant Eyrie bites prominent on her fingertips, but fading away even as I watched.

Dinner was served and conversation began. The Darigans aren't used to such fine meals and quite enjoyed themselves, but the two of them probably felt guilty about for once eating off a silver platter instead of sharing their people's pain.

I watched Selena delicately undo the clasp of her veil and the fabric fall away from her beak like water. She left the top part on, covering her silky hair, and let the facial part rest on her shoulder.

Those of you who think that because Eyries resemble birds, they are picky eaters, you are wrong.

Eyries are just as feline as they are avial, and nothing on Neopia would stand between an Eyrie and her meal.

I was worried that Selena would show a little of the coarseness that she had acquired over the years, she being used to eating on her feat or in flight, wherever she had the food and during whatever she was doing when it was brought to her, but she did well, sitting up and straight with her elbows off the table, just like she had grown up in perfect finery.

Lisha looked beautiful, too, wearing layers and miles of silk and glittering jewels in soft, pastel colors, a sharp contrast to Selena's dark, brooding purple, black, and silver. She wore show spectacles, smaller, sleeker, and less obvious than the plastic red mess she wore normally. Her fur had been shampooed and combed with beauty products made especially for Aishas and she was actually wearing makeup.

Lord Darigan smiles shyly and softly commented on my sister's newly revealed beauty.

King Skarl, swallowed his mouthful of roasted turkey leg and answered back, "Thank you. Darigan, but you do have a lovely daughter yourself, I'll give her that."

Selena looked down at her soup and took another spoonful, modestly ignoring my father.

There was no ill will here, not hatred, no thoughts of war. It was as if we were one country instead of rivaling neighbors and for once not so much the ruling class as good friends.

The hours ticked by and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As boring negotiations started, things actually got slightly amusing. Every so often, Lord Darigan would act as if he had been kicked and glare sharply at Selena, but shutting his mouth and holding his tongue as she made her point.

That was how it worked with the two of them. They had a strained relationship, father and daughter. Lord Darigan tried too hard to give Selena space and it made him look weak, while Selena really couldn't have cared less half the time and the other half just wished she could put him in an oubliette in Vex's prisoners and forget him.

Selena was a good ruler before Kass tossed her out of her bedroom window and she relented her power to Darigan. To this day I don't know why I did that. She didn't have to and the way he acted around her, I doubt her father would have argued.

But still, Lord Darigan was who sat on the throne, but if he had a difference of opinion with Lady Darigan, he immediately let her win, without arguing.

When dinner was over, King Skarl called for entertainment, bringing in music. I was surprised that he would do that, since it was a well-known fact that Darigan females could hypnotize the weak-minded and unprepared by their dance moves, and that he trusted Selena enough to not work her magic.

Her feet urged to dance, but this wasn't her sort of music. She liked fast melodies and soulful rhythms. She was more of a Twisted Roses person when they weren't playing that ear-bleeding shrieking they normally put on at the Concert Hall in the Northern Prehistoric Regions.

The two of us did end up on the dance floor together. Lady Darigan is very light on her feet, probably from being a flighted creature.

The two of us spun and swirled like smoke, in one place, then another. The way we moved was as if we were one person, one unit, not two people moving together.

King Skarl's eyes glittered, clearly happier then he had ever been and Lord Darigan smiled at his daughter with an expression that almost looked like the two of them harbored no hatred or resentment to each other.

The part was over all too soon and my Selena was gone like smoke blown by a breath of wind.

I went up to my bedchamber and readied myself for sleep, whistling softly. Once or twice, Lisha or one of her friends peeked their heads in to make snickering comments about me and Lady Darigan, to which I responded to with a sharp growl and an equally snickering threat to get my sword, or worse, let 'Lena get hers.

I fell asleep pretty quickly, falling into blissful dreams of when Selena and I were younger, before the First War.

Clack.

Clack.

Clackclackclack.

I grunted and sat up, staring at the canopy above my bed for a second, wondering what that noise was.

Clack.

I grunted again and sniffed, then clawed my way off the bed and toward the window. I stumbled several times in the dark and fell against the windowpane.

Picking myself up, nursing some sore ribs, and chasing away several Xanthian thoughts about the word "pain", I looked out the window.

Selena was standing beneath me, with a handful of rocks. Her jewel green eyes locked onto my blue, she picked up another pebble and flung it at me, beaming it right onto my nose.

The rock wasn't much, but it was enough to remind me that I'm afraid of heights.

I wavered for a second and pulled my stupid head back into the window. I heard Selena's chilly, musical, yet childlike laughter and then the slight i whoosh /i of feathered wings.

She landed on my windowsill just like a bird, feet first. She then crouched low like a cat, all eyes behind her black veil.

"Wanna go to a real party?" she said, somehow making it so her veil barely moved when she spoke, so it looked like the sound came from everywhere and nowhere.

I backed away from her. It was late. It was dark. I should be asleep.

But she was a beautiful thing in the moonlight, melting out of the darkness like she was an extension of the night. Even the subtle bits of purple in her fur and feathers showing underneath her black leather belly shower seemed to be one with the night, fading slowly from black to purple then black again.

I wondered what she'd think of me if I chose to stay here and go to sleep, like a good little puppy. I know it really shouldn't have mattered, but...I really, really wanted 'Lena to like me, and I'm not sure why.

Common sense should have told me to stay back, to tell Selena maybe I'd come to see her tomorrow. Much of the castle staff had gone home for that weekend's Draik Day and if my king needed me...

I observed her from steel-toed boots to veiled face.

Dare I trust the music of the night?

"Um, okay, give me a second to get dressed," I told the waiting Darigan Eyrie. She nodded and vanished around the corner, leaving me to get dressed in peace.

Not entirely sure what she had in mind, I put on civvies, a plain brown tunic with a chainmail coif and matching boots.

Within five minutes, I was standing before Selena, motioning for her to meet me outside. She shook her head and reached forward, grabbing my arms. Startled, I didn't fight back and found myself in the air, in her arms.

And I am deathly afraid of heights.

"SELENA! YOU PSYCHO!" I shouted.

Lady Darigan laughed, "You're just a big baby. You can ride all the way up to my Citadel to take care of Lord Kass on the back of a Uni, but you can't fly with me awhile?"

I covered my face with my paws and hid, deciding to avoid telling her that at least on a Uni, I'm sitting up and I don't have to worry about being dropped.

Falling off, maybe. Being dropped, no.

Her beating wings carried us upward and onward, heading toward a lit spot on the horizon under the looming Darigan Citadel.

She landed at the edge of a party, smelling strongly of peanut butter slushies and roasted Raptraphant legs. All around me were winged beasts, Lady Darigan's people, dancing wildly and roughhousing a little bit. In the center of the group was the Raptraphant, being cooked on a wooden spit.

"It's a hunting party," Selena explained. "We found food today, so tonight we celebrate!"

I glanced around nervously, ignoring the urge to tuck my tail between my legs. These Darigans looked rowdy, even if they were under the gaze of Lord Darigan, flanked by Galgarrath, Selena's chosen male parental role model, on one side and Vex on another. The three of them lingered on a platform, the Lord of the Citadel seated on a shining hematite throne. Two tiki torches stood on either side of the platform, casting the trio into an eerie light (once again, no pun intended).

Lord Darigan looked tired. All of them looked hungry under the giddiness accompanied by a fresh meal.

I glanced around at the merrymaking, the loud singing, and dancing figures.

Darigan females dancing. That in and of itself is a bad omen.

"I don't think I should be here," I said, and turned around, ready to leave the outdoor party, lit only by small candles on strings.

Lady Darigan caught me by the shoulders, spinning me around. Life has made her strong, physically, emotionally, mentally, and magically. I couldn't deny her, so I stared into her emerald eyes.

A shiver ran up my spine.

Lady Darigan seemed to be smiling wistfully under her veil, her green-on-green eyes twinkling in the moonlight.

"Please, Jeran," she pleaded. "Just for one night, don't be Sir Borodere. Don't be Jeran."

"Then who do you want me to be?" I inquired.

"Be...a Darigan. Just for one night, be a Darigan."

I swallowed hard and glanced up at the aging Bat Thing, sitting on his throne, wearily observing the party. I glanced around at the partiers, all giddy with sugar rush from the neocola being passed around.

I glanced at Selena, holding my hand tight, silently pleading with me. Selena never pleaded before then, and was only silent when she was being devious or thinking, which was most of the time.

My father's lying thievery stole so much from her people. I barely remembered when she was a shadow Eyrie, all black with the most beautiful glittering blue eyes, but she was happy when we were children. As she grew up and lost her down feathers, something took over inside her...the dark nature of her magic, I guess.

So much has been denied to her, why should I deny her now?

I nodded slowly and joined the party, dancing with the other Darigans to the wailing sounds of some of Twisted Roses' more tasteful songs. I was amazed once more as how Darigans behaved in a group, as civilized as any other Neopet, albeit with bestial undertones.

I got lost in the atmosphere, the celebration of having food after so long without. After awhile I started to feel a ravenous, internal hunger resonating from inside. I felt as if I had been without, instead of fed three square meals a day.

'Lena's bright green eyes and gemlike pupils haunted me. What I remember clearest of that night was those Dark Faerie eyes, glittering at me.

I did notice as Master Vex ran to Lord Darigan's throne as fast as his little legs would carry him. The tall Bat Creature leaned down and exchanged a few words with the Mynci, his yellow and red eyes widening.

All of a sudden, untapped strength from within burst forth as if from a dam. Lord Darrnan Darigan of the Flame stood tall and strong, his massive, holey wings outlined against the bright stars and illuminated by the tiki torches. Lady Darigan knew the motion and grabbed my wrist away from the ratraphaunt leg I was about to devour, pulling me toward her father.

I have no idea what happened next. All I know is that I found myself standing before the Lord of the Citadel, his daughter standing beside me, hands on her hips and tail lashing the air behind her. All I heard was four words: Skarl, kidnapped, and lab ray.

I don't know what possessed the Darigans to mobilize. I thought at the time that Meridell or perhaps even Brightvale had called upon them for help, but later I realized that neither country would have done this even if they needed Darigan's help.

What happened, I later found out, was that Darigan sentries had seen King Skarl's kidnapping and recognized the direction they were heading. No one from my country saw or heard, and Brightvale hadn't even been there.

The Darigans mobilized because it was the right thing to do.

I took a Darigan Uni steed, since I had no wings. I had to swallow my fear and close my eyes several times, but I did make it. Lord and Lady Darigan, as well as Galgarrath, used their wings, but they brought extra steeds just in case.

I have no idea how they knew where the secret lab way was, or perhaps they just followed the scent of my father's kidnappers, but they found it quickly. I wondered for awhile why they didn't use it to make themselves normal again, but then I realized two things:

Form does not equal happiness and the Lab Ray is too unpredictable, unless you tie up the guy running it and make him put it on one setting and leave it there.

The kidnappers were two Darigan Skeiths who had somehow or another come by a full lab map, and instead of selling it for 600,000 np, they decided to use it to turn King Skarl into one of them. We found them just as the lab ray was about to fire, and, stupid me, I ran right in front of it to protect my king.

I woke up the next morning, cold. I was confused because Castle Meridell is always warm. I pulled a blanket over me, and that confused me, too, because it felt like leather.

I could hear Lady Darigan shrieking as loud as her Eyrie lungs would allow her. I smiled. Apparently the imbeciles from the previous night had been successfully apprehended and no doubt the royal families were giving them an earful. No doubt Lady Darigan was about to dismiss them to Master Vex's dungeon, where they would sit between two completely insane prisoners for all eternity or play Master Vex for their freedom.

As if they'd win!

I heard a feminine sigh and the scrape of claws striding across the marble floors. I felt warmth beside me as weight pushed down on the bed, a female's hand brushing my shoulder.

"Jeran, are you alright?" Selena asked.

My eyes slitted open, a little fuzzy so early in the morning. I could tell that this wasn't my chambers at Castle Meridell...this was...one of the stone towers of Darigan Citadel.

Still confused, I glance up at Selena, her green eyes glowing.

"Of course," I said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because all of Meridell thinks you're dead," came a male voice from the doorway.

Lord Darigan was standing there, leaning against the doorframe. He looked younger than ever, as if the fight had put a little strength back into him. Battles do that to a Darigan.

"Why would they think that?" I inquired.

"We thought it would be kinder," Lady Darigan answered.

I stared at her for a few seconds, blankly pondering her statement. My memories were fuzzy on the night before. I did recall a bright light, a fuzzy-haired scorchio tied up on the floor...

"Why would _you_ think that?" I asked her, my eyes bouncing between her emerald green and her father's gold and ruby.

Selena had a mirror in her hand. She held it to me, a shining silver thing with a slight Dark Faerie look to it. The reflection wasn't much better.

My fur was dark purple, my eyes were blood red. I had black stripes lining my fur, and my hair (mane, actually) spilled down my shoulders, draping down my back. The unruly tufts of hair at my forehead were more like spikes now, tipped in purple.

Oh, yeah, remember that blanket I pulled over me? It wasn't a blanket.

For one night I wanted to be a Darigan...now I'm paying the price.


End file.
